Stablecoins can address challenges in cross-border transactions – Experts

Over the past two decades, mobile money has transformed Kenya’s domestic financial landscape. Data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) reveals that adult access to formal financial services rose from 26.7% in 2006 to over 84.8% today—a growth driven largely by mobile wallets.

However, industry experts note that these domestic networks face severe limitations at national borders. Diaspora members, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), corporate entities, and independent professionals routinely encounter slow, fragmented, and expensive cross-border payment platforms. Traditional payment systems rely on complex webs of intermediary banks, rigid foreign exchange controls, high fees, and multi-day settlement delays that reduce profit margins and tie up capital.

"There is no central clearinghouse to stall the payment, and no corporate middleman taking a massive cut of the revenue," said crypto analyst Leo Mwaikwasi.

"For the modern Kenyan enterprise, this translates into capital efficiency, settling transactions in minutes rather than days and retaining a greater percentage of hard-earned revenue," he added. 

Mwaikwasi highlighted interoperability, connecting Web3 global architecture with existing local financial tools, as the key operational breakthrough.

To bridge this gap, platforms such as Sorted Wallet are integrating crypto assets directly with local mobile networks.

Built to operate on feature phones and low-powered smartphones without requiring high-end hardware, the platform allows users to receive digital dollar payments (such as stablecoins), convert them into Kenya Shillings at lower transaction costs, and off-ramp the funds directly into local M-Pesa accounts for immediate use.

"Just as mobile money proved Kenya did not need physical bank branches to achieve domestic financial inclusion, decentralized finance is proving local businesses do not need legacy global banking infrastructure to thrive internationally. If adopted widely, stablecoins can significantly address the challenges Kenyans face in cross-border transactions," said Shishir Gupta, Managing Director of Sorted Wallet. 

Gupta emphasized that the goal of adopting stablecoins and decentralized platforms is not to replace existing domestic mobile money systems, but to expand their reach and connect local commerce to international markets.